I can't honestly believe that 1 single copy of this will sell. You surely can't sell it at a lower price, because then you'd have to charge for downloading media player? So exactly why would you buy it?

The EU does many seemingly idiotic things... Remember, they are just a bunch of politicians, it isn't like they understand things.

What is much more worrying is the dealing with software patents that the EU Commission is pretty much going over the head of the parliament. (Parliament says: "restart the entire patent issue process", Commision says: "fuck you"). We will effectively be assreamed if that patent crap goes through.

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Democracy is the dictatorship of the clueless masses.
In the land of the idiots, the mediocre man is a king.

They made a deal with HP. HP got their name on the iPod, and Apple got iTunes to ship on all HP PCs.

So let me get this straight...

Europe wants Microsoft to make a version of XP without WMP, so that Apple can make a deal with European OEMs to ship with iTunes?

How does that not sound fucked up?

I suppose next Europe will be whining that Microsoft shouldn't be able to ship XP with their own explorer shell?

Let's just take everything Microsoft out of Microsoft Windows XP, so that European OEMs have a choice.

Of course, Mr.Apple will go trough Mr. HP... that's obvious.

And it's mostly Real that sued, and yes, you could say "Europe wants Microsoft to make a version of XP without WMP, so that Apple can make a deal with European OEMs to ship with iTunes". It's forcing competition.

And don't forget about the unlawful pratices that Microsoft has gone trough. The fine is not to force Microsoft to do what it should have done before (because bundling is legal as far as I know), it's so competition can survive. In other words, Microsoft isn't fined because it bundled stuff with Windows, it's because they are an illegal monopoly.

And it's mostly Real that sued, and yes, you could say "Europe wants Microsoft to make a version of XP without WMP, so that Apple can make a deal with European OEMs to ship with iTunes". It's forcing competition.

And don't forget about the unlawful pratices that Microsoft has gone trough. The fine is not to force Microsoft to do what it should have done before (because bundling is legal as far as I know), it's so competition can survive. In other words, Microsoft isn't fined because it bundled stuff with Windows, it's because they are an illegal monopoly.

wow... so this is okay because they are busting them on something that ISN'T ILLEGAL so that they can make up for what Microsoft did in the past?

if you ask me.

You don't seem to understand... no matter which media player XP comes with, it's not "fair" competition, because the consumer pays for the media player... even if they don't want to use it.

Slapping Microsoft to remove WMP so that European PCs can ship with Real is fucking ridiculous.